A DRUG addict who spent a life of destitution on the streets of Blackpool and London is about to see his story turned into a Hollywood blockbuster.

Twenty years ago Stephen Smith rummaged around resort dustbins for food. Today, with a lot of help from his wife, he is back on the straight and narrow helping out other addicts.

But he wants his story to serve as a warning to others, enlisting the help of producer Gary Kurtz to take it to the big screen.

Speaking from his home in Germany, Stephen told the Citizen: "At 14 I became addicted to amphetamine and for the next 20 years took up to 100 tablets a day. Day after day I roamed the streets speaking to no-one. I finished up on skid row sleeping in shop doorways with the winos.

"Just as all hope seemed lost a miracle happened - a German student on holiday for five days in London spoke to me. We sat feeding the birds, but I passed out after ten minutes. When I woke later I found her Munich address stuffed in my pocket. I had fallen in love and softer bells began to ring. I got in touch with Hannelore who helped me inch by inch, day by day to live without drugs."

Stephen married Hannelore and moved to Germany where he decided to write his warts and all autobiography Addict. Fuelled by its worldwide success he then wrote to film producers in America.

A reply said Star Wars and American Graffiti producer Gary Kurtz, who had bought Addict days earlier, was in London asking to meet the author.

Stephen said: "I asked Gary whether he enjoyed the book. He said it was a horror story, but one that had to be told. I knew I had the right man."

And Gary aims to shoot some of the scenes in and around Blackpool on the streets Stephen himself called home.

Stephen, who has two teenage sons by Hannelore, said: "I want to show the sheer terror of drugs and being an addict. It's a horror story with a moral and educational twist.

"I've not left anything out and in doing so in large parts it's not a nice, happy film. I don't want to glamorise my life.

"I will be proud if parents drag their children to see the film to say this is what happens if you take drugs. I want it to be the opposite of Trainspotting."

At one point Stephen, now 56, arrived in Blackpool from London penniless and homeless after being thrown off a train without a ticket. "Sometimes I forget where I came from," he said. "It's difficult to think that 20 years ago I was rummaging round for food in Mereside dustbins without any friends.

"But that's exactly what I was doing and we're going to be using Blackpool as a backdrop for the story.

"I look on this film as fate. The chance of me meeting my wife on the streets was a million to one, the chances of meeting Gary Kurtz a billion to one. This was meant to be.

"We wrote to Robbie Williams asking him to play me in the film. So far we have had no reply but his father, Pete Conway, agreed to play mine."

Stephen and Gary are looking for extras and a man and woman in their mid-20s with local accents to play small parts.

If you would like to appear in the film write to Gary Kurtz, c/o 2 Blake Close, Galley, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, CV10 9RQ.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.